Wednesday, October 21

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The baseball sat on the top shelf of Ian Seymour’s locker at Tropicana Field on Wednesday afternoon, but that would not be its final destination.

The Rays were packing and dressing for a trip to Boston, which meant Seymour was going home. So, too, was the ball the 27-year-old left-hander received to commemorate his first Major League save in a 3-0 win over the Blue Jays at the Trop.

“I get to go home,” Seymour said, turning around to look at the ball. “So, I’ll give it to my mom.”

This weekend, Seymour is getting a chance to pitch out of the Rays bullpen at Fenway Park and spend Mother’s Day weekend with his family, including his parents, Albert and Amy. It’s the same place he earned the win in an unforgettable Major League debut last June, about 30 miles from his hometown of Westborough, Mass.

Whatever else happens in his career, he’ll always have that moment.

“Right in my backyard, basically. You can’t draw it up better than that. The fact that it happened that way, the chances of that don’t seem very high,” Seymour said. “I was pretty grateful for it, and it’s something we all are going to look back on forever, for sure.”

There is no such thing as a bad callup story in baseball. For every player who gets promoted to the big leagues, it’s the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. It’s the goal for not just every player who puts on a uniform, but for every friend, family member, coach and fan who supported the player along that journey.

Seymour’s was unique, though, because he literally shared his trip to the big leagues with his mom, Amy.

Eleven months ago, the Rays’ Triple-A Durham affiliate was playing at VyStar Ballpark in Jacksonville, Fla., when manager Morgan Ensberg gathered the team in the dugout. The Bulls had just blown a lead, so it struck the players as unusual that Ensberg would call them together for an eighth-inning meeting.

Ensberg’s reason was simple: Instead of starting the next day, Seymour was getting called up to join the Rays’ bullpen. Coincidentally, Amy had flown to Jacksonville to watch her son pitch. So Seymour went into the clubhouse, packed his stuff and called his mom, who was sitting in the stands, to share the news.

They hopped in her rental car, drove to the team’s hotel, grabbed his bags and hit the road for a Saturday night drive from Jacksonville to Tampa. They spent most of the drive calling friends and family members -- Amy drove, Seymour said -- but there was some time for reflection.

“It was a pretty special moment,” Seymour said. “It was pretty fun. Just getting to spend time with the person that’s been there with me and believed in me and provided me and supported me and everything -- that’s what moms do. I couldn’t be more grateful for her.”

Ironically, even though the rest of Seymour’s immediate family -- including his dad and younger siblings, Elliot and Isabelle -- hustled down to George M. Steinbrenner Field on such short notice, he wound up making his debut the next day … in Boston. Fortunately, they all flew up to be there, including Amy.

“She should’ve just stayed at home!” Seymour said, laughing.

Growing up, Seymour said, both his parents were “really involved” in his passion for baseball. His whole family is from Maryland, but they moved to Connecticut (where he was born) and eventually settled in Massachusetts. They weren’t necessarily baseball people, but they certainly came to be.

“It was driven by me more so than them,” he said, “but now they love baseball.”

They only had one condition: Seymour had to take school seriously if he wanted to play. They had a huge influence on him completing his degree in biology from Virginia Tech even after he was drafted by the Rays in 2020. Both parents are “very scientific”-minded, he said, as his mom worked in genetics and his dad currently works for a startup that develops drugs for rare genetic diseases.

He may not have wound up working in the same field, but he shares at least one trait with Amy.

“My mom is very, very determined. If there’s a project in front of her, she’s going to tackle it head-on and she doesn’t give up,” Seymour said. “I like to think that she’s instilled that in me, and that’s something I try to do every day.”

• With a perfect homestand, the Rays and their pitching staff are “setting the bar really high for themselves.” Read more >>

• We broke down what’s gone into the Rays’ remarkable streak of run prevention. Read more >>

• Bunts are back! The Rays are featured prominently in this Anthony Castrovince story on the bunt’s resurgence this season. Read more >>

• Steven Matz is on the injured list due to left elbow inflammation. Read more >>

• “Big Rig” Ryan Vilade is playing his brand of “winning baseball” in a key role. Read more >>

The Rays named catcher Caden Bodine their Minor League Player of the Month and right-hander Aidan Cremarosa their Minor League Pitcher of the Month. Both are coming off outstanding April performances for Single-A Charleston -- and were featured in last week’s newsletter about prospects off to hot starts.

Bodine, Tampa Bay’s No. 12 prospect, was also named Carolina League Player of the Month. Cremarosa, 22, was 2-0 with a 3.60 ERA, 32 strikeouts and only three walks in 20 innings over four starts for Charleston last month.

Junior Caminero and Elly De La Cruz shared a light-hearted moment on the field when the Rays and Reds played at Tropicana Field two weeks ago, as De La Cruz made a spectacular play to rob his fellow Dominican infielder of a hit.

As it turned out, there were two more exchanges. Caminero briefly tested out a bat with De La Cruz’s name on it during the Rays’ recent homestand. It’s a standard practice -- Caminero said he gave a bat to Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, for instance -- and De La Cruz noted that Caminero made the request.

Not that Caminero needs a piece of lumber to find power or hits.

“It’s not the bat,” De La Cruz told MLB.com senior reporter Mark Sheldon. “It’s the guy.”

One other thing: Remember how Caminero joked he wasn’t going to deliver the food he promised De La Cruz after his defensive wizardry/robbery? That wasn’t the case. De La Cruz said Caminero came through -- a bat for a meal, a fair deal.

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